Webinar on “Way Forward to Atmanirbhar Bharat through Agri-Entrepreneurship” organized at SKUAST-Jammu

Division of Agricultural Economics & Agri Business Management (AEABM) and Agribusiness Incubator, SKUAST-Jammu organized a webinar on 23.09.2021 under the patronage of Prof. J.P. Sharma, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor SKUAST-Jammu. The webinar was organized to discuss the relevance of Agri-Entrepreneurship in taking the country forward towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat. Prof. J. P. Sharma, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor expressed that the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign is a launch-pad to boost entrepreneurship, nurturing innovation and development of an environment for rural-urban symbiotic development. He was speaking as a Chief Guest on the occasion. Prof. Sharma observed that the development of entrepreneurship lies at the heart of this campaign and is one of the most important tools that will put us on the path of becoming more self reliant. Encouraging the creation of an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship, he urged the individuals to adopt this campaign to transform local India into global India. Earlier he gave a brief outline of the Agriculture sector and how most of it is unorganized. He pointed out that the only way to uplift this sector is by gradually shifting from the concept of Agriculture to Agri-Business. Prof. Sharma also outlined the importance of processing and value addition for doubling the income of farmers that will eventually help in the achieving the overall goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Earlier, Dr. Jyoti Kachroo, Prof. & Head, Division of AEABM and I/c Agri Business Incubator, SKUAST-Jammu formally welcomed the distinguished guests, learned speakers and all other participants of the webinar. She also gave a brief overview of the RKVY-RAFTAAR Project operational at Agri-Business Incubator, SKUAST-Jammu and briefed the participants about the various activities being undertaken under the project in order to support budding agri-entrepreneurs and help them in securing funding from the Govt. of India. She informed that two batches of Agri-entrepreneurs have already been successfully rolled out by the Incubator and a total of 14 start-ups have managed to get a healthy grant-in-aid from the GOI.

Dr. Bikram Singh, Dean FoA, SKUAST-Jammu who was the convener of the programme gave the opening remarks. He discussed about the opportunities in Agriculture & its allied sectors and how entrepreneurship development is imperative for bringing in a positive change in the agriculture sector.

The expert speaker for the session, Mr. Sanjeeva Shivesh, Founder & CEO, The Entrepreneurship School, listed out the main factors that deter the Indian youth from taking the path of entrepreneurship and self reliance. He observed that a change in mindset is absolutely essential for fostering in an era of innovation & entrepreneurship in the country. The other expert for the day, Dr. Asha Kapoor, Director training & learning, Global Solutions India discussed about the latest trends in the field of Agri-Entrepreneurship. She earmarked some of the new opportunities waiting to be capitalized in the field of modern Agriculture. Technical team consisting of Dr Manish Sharma, Professor and Head, Statistic and Computer Science, Dr. Rajan Salalia, Senior Scientist (Entomology), Dr Punit Choudhary Sr. Scientist and Head KVK Jammu, Dr Sachin Gupta Associate Professor (Pathology), Dr. Devinder Sharma, Assistant Professor, Entomology and Dr. S. P. Singh, Assistant Professor, Division of Agricultural Economics and ABM, SKUAST-J helped in smooth conduct of the webinar on virtual platform. More than 450 registrations were received for the webinar across the country which includes Scientists, line department officers, students and farmers. At the end vote of thanks was given by Dr. Sudhakar Dwivedi, Associate Professor, AEABM.

He observed that as agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy, it will play a very crucial part in the journey towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat. He also listed the various schemes that have been rolled out by the Govt. of India in order to support the development of entrepreneurship and innovation in the field of agriculture & its allied sectors.

She also shared success stories of innovative farmers who took on bold challenges through Agri-entrepreneurship and made a name for themselves and their surrounding farming community.

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